Programs

Karlu Karlu Devils Marbles

Sunday 30 May 2010, 1:30pm ABC1

Karlu Karlu is the eerie and majestic country in Central Australia that white Australia christened the Devils Marbles. This spiritually powerful rock formation is important for four language groups and it was the centre of a long custody battle. Lesley "Blackhat" Foster led that fight and eventually won the right to have Karlu Karlu returned to the traditional owners of the land.

MIRIAM COROWA: Hello, I'm Miriam Corowa. Welcome to Message Stick. Karlu Karlu is the eerie and majestic country in Central Australia, that white Australia christened The Devil's Marbles. This spiritually powerful rock formation is important for four language groups, and it was the centre of a long custody battle.

Lesley 'Black Hat' Foster led that fight and eventually won the right to have Karlu Karlu returned to the traditional owners of the land. He even had a rock taken for the grave of outback pioneer, Flynn Of The Inland, handed back to the original custodians of the country.

LESLEY FOSTER: My name's Lesley Foster. My skin name is Pitjara and I belong to this Karlu Karlu.

Old people gone, they left this place. Old people used to walk around here, but they've all passed away now.

Warlpiri, Warrumungu, Kaytetye and Alyawara are all connected to this country. One country. It's big country, Karlu Karlu. All the old people have passed away. My grandfather passed away and his father has passed away. I have no one left now. I am the only main one left. I am the only one, there is no one beside me.

I was after this country for about twenty-eight years. I was going on and going on. I kept going to Land Council meetings and asking for this country. I kept asking for this country. I kept pushing to get Karlu Karlu back. I've been fighting for twenty-eight years. All the white fellas got sick of it and they said "We'll have to do something." The government people said "We'll have to give him back that land." So I went to a meeting at Hamilton Downs and thought I would have my last try there at Hamilton Downs for Karlu Karlu. I never went to any more meetings after that.

Well, they had a meeting down in Canberra because I was still asking for Karlu Karlu. They thought about it and said "He's been asking for a long time and he's still talking for that place. He's still asking about Karlu Karlu, so we'll have to give it back to him, his country." And they gave it back to me all right. They handed it back to me. Karlu Karlu.

JENNY MACKLIN: So for me to be able to hand over the deeds to the traditional owners is a very, very significant privilege.

LESLEY FOSTER: Karlu Karlu is what all the Warramungu people call it and Kaytetye call it Iniparantu. Iniparantu means that hair string. You know when all the young men wear it.

That's why all these boulders came up. That's why they came up when Araranjji was making it, when he was making them with that stick. He had a stick like that, then another one this way and another one this way, this way and this way. He was rolling it. They became the shape of a football. That's how Araranjii made them.

He was in the Dreamtime, he rolled it like that in the Dreamtime. In the Dreamtime, he rolled and rolled until it was round like a football. That's why these rocks are all round. Some of them are rough and some of them are round ones. These rocks came up out of the ground.

He was making that hair belt with the spindle. He said, "What am I going to do now? Where am I going to go?" He was looking for a place where he was going to settle down.

Araranjji was a traveller. He was standing with a woomera, looking to where he could go. He came from north. He travelled a long way to this place. He was rolling that hair string belt with the spindle. He came north from Mosquito Creek. He walked everywhere.

He is big too. He will frighten you. If you get close, he is a giant man. He came from north.

There is one place that you can see where he stopped from water. You can see where he placed his knees and hands. You can see where he kneeled down by the water. You can see these, this one and this one, where he drank water at Mosquito Creek.

He was coming in this way to sit down and eat. He was eating all the people. He was catching them, killing them and eating them like meat. He wasn't eating grass. He ate people like us. To him, people were like kangaroos. He wasn't a person that ate kangaroos, he ate humans. Araranjii was eating people. When he was hungry and because he didn't eat any other meat, he would eat blackfellas. He would look. "Hey. Hey, someone is camping here. Which way did they go?" Well, he followed their tracks, he tracked them down. When he found them, he speared them. He ate all of them, that was his meat.

We eat kangaroos today. Our meat is kangaroo now but Araranjii ate anything. He ate people like us.

Araranjii was a human being. He was a person like you and me. He was a person, not a spirit. He wasn't a spirit, he was a black man like us.

A policeman ran into that rock. Not this rock here but one on the other side. This rock wasn't over there. It was here, here where it is now. I've seen that rock. They took it away because it killed that policeman. They took that rock like a prisoner. But they took it for nothing. They just took it to another country. It wasn't actually a prisoner, they just took it for that doctor. They took it for Flynn's grave, then. But they handed it over to me.

Wallaby, Kangaroo, Duck, Eagle, and Pelican were looking down from above saying, "We found water." They went and drank it. But it wasn't water. It was the juice from the bush plum. That juice is watery. When you put them in the coolamon, the juice comes out of it like water. So they squeezed the juice from the bush plum into the coolamon and the juice spilled all over the place. That's why all the footprints are still there.

You know when you stand at a waterhole, you leave your footprints behind? Well, it's the same for the animals. They drank the water and then when they left, their tracks stayed there. And still, the tracks are left there today. They still find water there. Wallaby, kangaroo - any little animals can find it. That's why you can still see the footprints left behind on the west side.

We got big mob for this one. There is big mob tribes and big mob languages. Alyawarra mob, Katetye mob, Warrumungu mob, and Warlpiri mob. We come together as one. We come together for meetings, all of us. It doesn't matter what tribe. If we have ceremony, or if we come for meeting, we all come together.

We're a team, Kalinjarri and Antarrengeny mob. We're all responsible for this country. We all look after this country. We can't sell it. We can't sell it. Nothing. We can't.

When I'm gone, that means Fatboy and you, you two fellas will be the boss. Fatboy will be the boss and you'll be the working man. You have to follow him.

We don't have any Jampins for this place. I've only got one grandson, his name is Fatboy. I can't remember his Christian name. He's the boss for this place. Fatboy, he's got to take it on and you will take it on as his worker. When I'm gone, you have to watch Fatboy. When I'm gone somewhere, Fatboy will take it on. He will take over my place. I've only got one young fella that belongs to this place. That's Fatboy. You'll be with Fatboy. You two have to be together.

I'm saying this because I am now the only one left for this country. My grandfather said to me "This is your country." That's what my grandfather told me. He would say, "Keep it, it's yours, so you can show them, teach them so they can learn. When you sing for them in initiation, you can teach them about this place."

Where am I from? I'm from this country now. I am Jampin Blackhat.

MIRIAM COROWA: This documentary Karlu Karlu: The Devil's Marbles was produced by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association - CAAMA. And those haunting images were filmed by award-winning director and cinematographer Warwick Thornton.

If you'd like to watch this show online, go to our website: You can leave us a message there too. See you next week.

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MARY G: Oh, thank you, darling. Hello, everybody. It's me, Mary G - the Queen of the Kimberley. And guess what? Message Stick has a fantastic story. Well, a kind of a fantastic story. It's all about Mark Bin Baka. I don't know if you know him, but they put anybody on TV now.

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